


Farewell to conscience

by Flexor



Series: Remnant: To hell in a handbasket. [6]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Disturbing Themes, NOT kidding about DISTURBING, Scary Blake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 08:53:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7041511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flexor/pseuds/Flexor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the road to Haven, Blake Belladonna, Weiss, and Yang find the signal of Ruby's scroll, with no measurable aura. They investigate and find a nest of White Fang fighters. Blake offers to kill them all on her own. And does.</p><p>"We've kicked the hornet's nest, now better make sure we kill all the hornets" -- Evan Wright, <i>Generation Kill</i>.</p><p><b>Warning:</b> If you expect some nice sweet Bumbleby action here, this may not be the fic for you. I think I've actually managed to make Blake as scary as Neo, which is no mean feat. Here be dragons.</p><p><b>ETA: </b> Folks, there's a war on. Bad shit happens in a war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Farewell to conscience

Blake Belladonna was walking along the road to Haven, deep in gloomy thoughts. Most of her thoughts these days were gloomy. Having her friends Yang and Weiss walking with her helped. Weiss, who knew exactly how the world ought to work, and the irrepressible energy that was Yang. The world had dealt them a couple of hard knocks recently, with dark hints that there were more knocks where those came from. All three girls had been subdued for a while, but today, their eyes set on Haven and their friends already there, they were ready to deal out some knocks of their own.

Something in Blake's pocket buzzed angrily against her thigh. She scowled. She thought she'd told the damn scroll to keep quiet. Blake's main strength was in stealth, to strike from the shadows, pass unseen, unheard. Amusing ring tones were not helpful for hiding. She pulled the thing out, thinking of just tossing it into a ditch or giving it back to Yang. With the Scroll network down, they weren't much use anyway. All right then, you little electric imp. What is it now?

She blinked.

"Guys? Any of you have this?"

On Blake's scroll was a picture of a dark haired girl, and a blinking grey bar showing that the girl's aura was gone, and therefore any future hits would _really_ hurt.

Yang's eyes opened wide. "Ruby?"

"Ruby's _scroll_ ," said Weiss. "Maybe she dropped it."

"Or maybe..." Yang didn't complete her sentence.

Blake looked round. The evening was getting late, but Blake had the excellent night vision that was part of her Faunus heritage. "What's the range on team aura monitors?"

"Dunno," said Yang "Couple of miles?"

"It uses side band," said Weiss. "Depending on atmospheric conditions, between two and three miles."

"Yeah," said Yang. "Couple of miles."

Blake pointed. "There's some buildings over there. Maybe that's where the scroll is."

"Let's go," said Yang. She turned round and started to walk off.

Weiss grabbed Yang's arm. "Hold it, Bombshell! The people there may not be friendly."

"I can also be unfriendly if I want to."

"I don't think they do _heads_ in the Ambrosia Clinic. There are only three of us, and who knows how many of them. Don't just go barging in. Let's take a good look first." 

 

Blake went down on one knee and raised her fist. They were close enough now to see the buildings, a large farm as it turned out. Weiss pulled out her binoculars. Blake tapped her shoulder.

"What?"

"The white building in the middle. Look at the wall."

Weiss turned where Blake pointed.

"Oh," said Weiss. She passed the binoculars to Yang. On the wall was a picture of some sort of predatory animal with claw marks behind.

"Someone's getting confident," said Yang.

What Blake had seen was the brand of the White Fang. They had been a major player in the battle of Beacon academy, where Yang had lost her right arm, and Blake had lost all sympathy for the organisation that had been both mother and father to her, and shaped her into the woman she was now. As she watched, Blake could feel a dangerous cold growing round her heart. She had spent several months in one of the White Fang hideouts, or 'strongholds', in precisely this state of mind.

People were going to die tonight. 

 

"Do you think Ruby is in there?" Yang tried to keep the worry out of her voice.

"No," said Weiss. "Either she got away and she's out of range of her scroll, or..."

"Or they killed her," said Blake. "Let's find out."

Yang clicked out her bracelets. Blake grabbed her shoulder and shook her head.

"I'm going in alone."

"The hell you are," said Yang. "If they hurt Ruby, I want a piece of them."

Blake put her pack on the ground and pulled out a tin of black, which she rubbed onto her face and hands. She took the black bow from her head, and twitched her cat ears.

"I'll leave a couple alive for you."

"Blake." Weiss put a slender hand on Blake's shoulder. "We won't let you do this alone. We're in this together."

"I'm touched, but I don't _want_ you in there with me. This place is big enough for two dozen little soldiers. If we three just storm the place, we're dead."

Yang scowled. "It's dangerous to go together. Here, take nobody. How do you figure that?"

"This is exactly the game I've been playing all these months. I can pick them off one by one, maybe two. But I need to know that anything that moves is an enemy. That's my edge. If I have to look before I strike, I may not be fast enough."

"I don't like it," said Yang.

Blake sneered. "You don't _have_ to like it. But if you want to find out what happened to Ruby, then you have to sit this one out."

Weiss let out a deep sigh. "Blake's right. She's done this sort of job before. We haven't."

"It's not like you have to be idle here," said Blake. "If any of them go for help, I'm counting on you to catch them."

Blake looked herself over. In the Time Before Everything Went To Shit, she'd liked her white shirts. These days, she dressed mostly in dark greys, black, dark blue. Deadly night shades indeed. Oh. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her scroll. She turned to Yang, stuck a finger in her top and dropped the scroll in. There was plenty of space.

"Don't let anyone get it out," said Blake, with a little grin. "Not even Weiss."

"What?" Weiss' eyes clicked onto Yang. "Did you _tell_ her?"

Yang frowned. "Tell her what?"

"About, uh..." Weiss gritted her teeth. "When we were camping..."

Blake slowly looked round at Weiss. Weiss' cheeks turned a darker shade of pale.

"I didn't tell anyone anything about that," said Yang. "Promise."

"But you just did," said Blake, smiling sweetly. "I who am about to die must know."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Nothing."

With her face darkened, and her dark clothes, Blake had all but disappeared, so all that could be seen of her was her bright grin. Weiss blew out some steam.

"I was cold. So I got in the sleeping bag with Yang, allright? Because she's always nice and warm."

"Text book survival technique," said Blake. "Well done. And?"

Yang and Weiss exchanged glances.

"Well, it was stupid," said Yang. "There's this thing I can do with my fingers. And since Weiss _paid_ for those fingers..."

Blake's grin was now so wide her head almost came off. "What is the thing you can do with your fingers? Tell me more about the thing with your fingers."

Yang sighed, put her hand on Blake's shoulder. There was a buzzing sound. Blake's eyes opened wide, and then she bent over laughing.

"Can..." she took a breath, looked up at Yang. "Can I borrow that sometime?"

"It... It doesn't come off."

"Oh. Well in that case, could you just look the other way?"

"Uhh..."

Blake got the better of her giggles. "Oh well. I can see who your _favourite_ teammate is."

"It wasn't _like_ that," said Weiss. "We were talking about... things, and..."

"Yes?" Blake had never seen Weiss _or_ Yang this flustered. And but for a loose remark, a silly joke, she might never have before she died.

"I guess you had to be there," said Yang.

"Obviously. Well, time to go."

Weiss nodded. "If you're not back in four hours..."

"You wait _another_ four hours," said Blake. "Do you think the filth is just going to line up for me to kill them? If I don't get them all before dawn, I'll be back here. Really people. _Don't_ follow me. Not even if it gets noisy out there. I'll be making some of the noise." 

* * *

 

It was a dark night, with most of the moon crumbled away on its everlasting cycle of breaking up and re-forming. The air was cool, and there was only a little wind. Blake held her breath and listened to the silence, turning her cat ears this way and that. She was looking for guards. There had to be some. Not even the White Fang had grown so complacent that they would all just go to sleep. If they were doing this properly, there would be one guard on patrol, and another one to keep an eye on the moving guard. Back in Mountain Glenn, Blake had usually lured the guards away with noises or one of her shadows, and then slipped past them to do what she needed to do, getting back out before they returned. Being spotted wasn't that much of a problem. In fact, having the White Fang _know_ she was there helped to encourage a nice dose of paranoia. It led to lots of White Fang running about with weapons, occasionally shooting at each other instead of Blake. This, though, was a fresh group. They wouldn't know about her. With no sight or sound of guards, Blake waited for a gust of wind and shot forward. 

 

This farm had obviously housed horses at some point. There were stables, haystacks. The horses were gone, though. Blake kneeled in the shadow of a tractor and peered out. She saw movement in the darkness. Someone was walking, not quite towards her. A guard on patrol. Blake slowly drew her dark blade from its scabbard. From the way he walked, she could see it was a man. Long easy steps. He wasn't expecting trouble, not out here in the middle of nowhere. Her first kill of the night.

When first she started hunting the White Fang, killing people had given her pause. Most of them were just misguided Faunus, people doing their jobs in the glorious army of the White Fang. Her very first target had forced her hand. A woman who had spotted her and opened fire on her. Blake had ducked behind cover, left one of her shadow forms as a decoy, flanked her, and shot her in the head as she was firing at the decoy. It had been self defence. Everybody knew it was okay to kill out of self defence. Blake moved, putting the tractor between herself and the man, slinking round as he passed it. _This_ guy was welcome to try. It wouldn't work though. Maybe he could beat her in a fair fight. Some White Fang fighters could. Which was why Blake took great care never to get into fair fights.

She checked her surroundings once more, then stepped forward like a shadow till she was right behind the guard. With only the merest whisper, her blade came round and struck the man with a perfect draw cut between shoulder and neck, cracking through his collarbone, severing his spine. He went down without even crying out. Blake grabbed his legs and dragged him under the tractor. He'd be missed before too long, and people would come looking. Blake would be long gone by then, and people would be moving around, hopefully in small manageable clumps. 

 

Blake had stopped counting how many lives she had taken. Some fighters said that they could remember the faces of all their kills, but Blake honestly couldn't. Very few of them had been out of self defence. Blake had decided that they should die, and then she had killed them. In the beginning, she had been thinking of what the White Fang had done to the city of Vale. To her home. To her friends. To Yang. Especially to Yang. But that had faded. She had killed, simply because they were White Fang, and she hated them. Blake no longer claimed any moral high ground. If some good came of it, if some decent people would live out their lives in peace because she had killed the person who would otherwise have ruined it, that was nice. But it wasn't the reason why she killed. 

 

Blake needed a hiding spot, a place to look out over the grounds and observe the inevitable search party. Her eyes fell on the stables. There was a hay loft, with underneath the boxes where the horses had been. A set of upstairs doors opened to the outside so bales of hay could be lifted up. It had a view of the whole compound.

Perfect.

Blake made her way into the stable and started to climb the ladder. She stopped at noises. Voices. Blake poked her head over the edge of the loft. Two people were here, for the same reason Blake was. To be out of sight, out of earshot of the main building. Being a foot soldier in the Forces of Evil was a hard job. You never knew when it would all end. You never knew how many innocent people there would be to slaughter tomorrow. What better way to relieve combat stress than some nice hot sex? The two were completely absorbed in each other, totally focused on what they were doing. Which made them easy pickings. Blake stepped onto the loft, disappeared into the shadows, stalked forward, folding her blade into its gun form. The girl was on top, her White Fang tunic hanging open, riding the boy for what she was worth. The boy was looking up at her, hands on her breasts. Girl first, then the boy. Which meant that she, at least, would die happy. The boy less so.

Blake moved like liquid shadow till she was behind the girl, put her gun against the back of her head, fired. With her left hand, she pushed the girl to the side. The boy, bare chest suddenly spattered with tiny drops of blood, stared up at her in terror. Blake aimed between his eyes. Fired. Turned away. As she took up her position behind the hay loft doors, she looked over her shoulder once. Then, she settled down, looking through the hole of a missing plank at what would happen.

Back when she was in the White Fang, her teacher had been the leader. Adam. Adam Taurus. She had been so young, so green. She had idolised him, loved him, admired his strength, his passion. The light in his eyes as he talked about the future of the Faunus. She had had friends in the White Fang, but nobody like him. And he had loved her, of that Blake was sure. He had taught her how to use her sword. How to fight. The acrobatic skills she used to move from place to place no matter what stood in her way. She never left his side, was with him in every fight, with every strike demonstrating her worth to him. She wasn't just a pretty face. Blake could punch well above her weight.

The inevitable happened. They had been in a heavy fight, but they had _won_. The Atlas soldiers, bloodied and battered, had been forced back, and the day belonged to the White Fang. That night, Blake had joined Adam in his tent, sat down on top of him, wordlessly taken off her shirt. And it was wonderful. Rough. Wild. Never ending. Blake found that she _liked_ dangerous men, and a deep hunger awoke in her. She and Adam sought out danger. In the small pauses between fights, there would be brief touches. Looks. Smiles. Promises. Blake lost most of her friends, to dark mutters of 'sleeping her way to the top'. She didn't care. She was in love, and she was strong and fearless. If she had died in those days, she would have stood before the Lady Bastet and thanked her, having nothing more to ask for. 

 

The floodlight outside the main building suddenly came on, and people came out, shouting someone's name. Probably, the guard had not turned up to be relieved. Some five or six White Fang soldiers came out, armed with guns and blades. Blake frowned, then quickly turned round to the dead girl. Blake tried to pull off her White Fang tunic, but it was hard going as the corpse had stiffened. Blake put a foot on her back and pulled hard on her arm. It bent back with a crack and Blake could take the tunic off. The girl rolled onto her back. Her face was a grisly mess from the exit wound of Blake's weapon. Blake turned her eyes away as she pulled on her disguise, then found the girl's Grimm mask. After one more look outside, Blake sprang down and headed outside.

It took them a while to find their comrade's body. They pulled him out, confirmed that he was dead, and then sent one of them back to the main house to get help. Blake jumped up and ran towards him.

"What's going on?"

"Hendrix is dead! Someone killed him!"

"Yeah," said Blake. "Me."

She slashed her blade across the man's stomach, the sharpened scabbard across his chest. He screamed, and Blake shot away into the darkness. She knew she'd given him a deadly wound, and without medical attention, he would die. It would take maybe half a day or so, unless these people had a competent medic on board to stitch him up. Many of Blake's kills in Mountain Glenn had been of this kind. Slow. Painful. Heart-rending for their friends to watch. Very bad for morale.

Blake kept low to the ground, and ran towards some deep shadows. She kneeled and watched the group as they all ran to their fallen friend. Three of them picked him up and carried him to the main house, leaving two. Blake sprinted towards a small shed, vaulted up, and kneeled on the roof, a dark shadow in the faint light of moon and floodlights. She concentrated and leapt down, leaving a dark simulacrum of herself on the roof. Blake took a deep breath and screamed. As the two remaining fighters turned towards the noise, she ran round fast. One of them spotted her shade on top of the shed and fired, an angry staccato sound in the quiet night.

"Cease fire!" A female voice snarled. "That's a decoy!"

She never got the chance to explain more. Blake fell on them both and struck the woman down first. The splintered moment it took the other to turn round and overcome his hesitation to shoot someone in a White Fang uniform, was all Blake needed for a hard headshot. She picked up both automatics, turned towards the main building and pulled the triggers, sending a spray of bullets towards the house till the magazines were empty. She found a nice dark place and crouched down in it to see what would come next. 

 

After she returned from Mountain Glenn with Weiss and Yang, Blake had often wondered at her capacity for being cruel. She hadn't started out that way, preferring to kill her targets quickly, and only then to take her trophies, mirroring what Adam had done to Yang. Taunting him. That it was _wrong_ to do these things had stopped bothering her. She had said farewell to her old self, and turned herself into a pure spirit of vengeance, dedicated to destroying as many of the White Fang as she could, before being killed herself. For a while, she had saved her last bullet for herself, but then she had fired it into a wall. When she got caught, Adam could have her. No matter what he did to her, she could only die once. A point could be made that she deserved everything she got. Adam had caught a White Fang soldier who had tried to leave and had him impaled. Even watching the man die slowly at the top of a pole, high above the ground, hadn't changed her mind. It almost seemed like a penance for the things _she_ had done.

Adam had not turned into a bloodthirsty maniac overnight. The change had been gradual. A prisoner killed when they could have let him go. A strike on a military base that turned out to have a few civilians who were killed along with the soldiers. Regrettable but unavoidable, Blake was forced to agree. Forcing a captive human to reveal what he knew of troop placement. For a long time, Blake believed Adam's explanations. He _loved_ her. He wouldn't lie to her. But after a while, Blake started to notice that Adam became more aroused after these... unfortunate events. Their love-making had always been more intense after a battle, and Blake loved him like that. Still, something had changed. Something she couldn't put her finger on.

Then, they had raided a human village for supplies. All the humans had been herded into the town hall, and when Adam finally came out again, he had grabbed Blake's arm, and almost dragged her into one of the houses. Blake had followed him eagerly enough, but that day, Adam had been rougher with her than ever before, almost to the point of drawing blood. He had apologised to her, but from that moment on, there was the unshakable thought that something was _wrong_. Very, very wrong indeed. 

 

Something happened at the main building. Blake counted twelve White Fang fighters coming out and spreading out in three groups of four. Blake rubbed her chin. She didn't know these people. Back in Mountain Glenn, she could take some groups of four, but not all of them. Here, it was anyone's guess. Better to do something else first. She dropped down to her stomach, and crawled towards the house. It was a white two-story brick building. If someone hadn't painted the White Fang sign on it, they might simply have walked up to it asking for Ruby. That would not have been good. Blake looked round, listened. Nobody was near. She unwound the ribbon and threw her weapon onto the roof, hooking it. She climbed up the ribbon quickly and quietly walked over the roof, staying below the top. There was a balcony and Blake dropped down on it. The curtains were drawn and a dim light came from within. Blake tried the door handle. It turned, and the door opened outward. Of course. Who would lock their doors here in the middle of nowhere? Blake's ears turned forward as she listened for sounds inside. Quietly, she stole inside and pulled the curtain aside so she could see.

Inside, in the bed, was the man she had struck earlier. He had a bandage round his chest and stomach. A woman was sitting next to him, holding his hand. The man saw Blake, and opened his mouth to warn her. Blake leapt forward, grabbed the woman, pulled her back towards her and put her sword across her throat.

"Hi," said Blake. "How's he doing?"

"You know damn well how he's doing."

"Good good. I'm looking for a friend of mine. Small girl, dark hair, red cloak. Have you seen her?"

"Go to hell," said the woman.

"Save me a space," said Blake, and drew her sword across her throat.

Blake dropped the woman to the floor, and walked over to the man, who was trying to get up, but couldn't. He glared at her with bare teeth.

"Same question. Have you seen my friend?"

"Sure have, bitch. Wasn't wearing a cloak though. Wasn't wearing _anything_. Loud voice for such a cute little thing." The man grinned. "We were playing noughts and crosses on her back with knives to see who could have her first. I lost, but I got to watch. That's a good memory to die to. She your girlfriend? I think she cheated on you."

Blake's mouth went dry. "Is there anything you degenerates won't do to a fellow Faunus? And a _rabbit_ Faunus too. The gentlest creatures among us."

The man laughed. The laugh turned into a coughing fit. "Wasn't a rabbit Faunus when we were done with her. We sliced off her ears, nice and slow, fried them in butter and made her eat them. Got to keep your strength up. Still died too soon. Didn't get my turn."

"I'll fix that," said Blake. She sat down on top of him, ripped the pillow from under his head and pushed it down on his face hard. He tried to punch and kick, but Blake had cut his stomach muscles, and there was no real force in his arms anymore. His struggles slowed down, then stopped. Blake kept pushing the pillow down for a while longer, then pulled it away. She felt his neck for a pulse, found none.

In the beginning, there had been the jolt of remorse when she killed. Her conscience telling her that she had just done something she should not have done. The intense cold shivers up her spine had grown less with every kill, until now, she couldn't feel it even if she looked for it. She wasn't deceiving herself. She did not tell herself that this was a _good_ thing to do. That they deserved it. That she was doing the work of some higher power. It was simply her conscience getting tired of telling her over and over again, till it just gave up. On the other hand, she had never felt the almost erotic thrill of watching someone die either. She simply felt nothing. It was the difference between her and Adam. Looking back on her last days with him, it was clear that Adam _had_ enjoyed the kill. To watch the life leave some child of Human or Faunus. Almost like satisfying a hunger. Adam had truly turned evil, while Blake was merely... lost. But how big of a difference was that, really? 

 

Blake looked up. Outside was the sound of gunfire. Concentrating, she could hear both the automatic fire of the White Fang's weapons, and the sound of shotgun shells. Blake took a breath.

"Yang," she whispered.

In a flash, Blake was out of the door onto the balcony, over, and running in the direction of the fight. Her eyes opened wide. Yang was right in the middle of the courtyard, fighting four White Fang at once, hair on fire, eyes red, terrible and beautiful. Blake bared her teeth.

What the everlasting _hells_ was she doing there? And where was Weiss?

Blake turned round, went down on one knee, aimed carefully and fired. The floodlight went out, throwing the whole scene into a deep dark that only Blake's Faunal eyes could see through. She sprinted out at the group of fighters and slashed out with both her sword and the sharpened edge of its scabbard. Yang turned round, raised her fists. Blake swept her leg round and kicked Yang's feet from onder her, landing her on her back. Yang's metal arm came round. Blake dodged, put her blade across Yang's throat.

" _Yang!_ "

Yang's eyes grew large, then she grinned. "Oh it's you kitty cat. Nice to see you've been landing on your feet."

Blake did not remove her blade from Yang's throat.

"What in the name of _Sutekh_ are _you_ doing here?"

"Thought you might need some help. There's one hell of a lot of these White Fangers roaming about."

Blake sheathed her blade, seething at Yang.

"And you thought I hadn't _noticed_? I was nowhere near them until _you_ showed up. You could have gotten us both _killed_. That's why I specifically told you _not_ to come after me. Are you _thick_?"

Yang scowled. "Only trying to help, pussycat."

"You were supposed to keep any of the scum from escaping. Where's Weiss?"

Yang pointed. "Somewhere over there."

"And you left her _alone_? You stupid reckless _idiot_!"

"Weiss can take care of herself."

"And I can't?" Blake got up and pulled Yang to her feet. "Get the hell out of here. _Don't_ come back till I call you. Find Weiss. Block any blows coming for her. Preferably with your _head_."

Yang stood still for a moment, staring at Blake with her mouth open.

"Get _out_!" 

* * *

 

It took Blake thirty minutes to calm herself down, then another hour to take down the last of the patrols. She left none of them alive. Finally, she walked straight into the front door. Two were left inside, the leader and some woman. Blake knocked the man out from behind and disabled the woman with a choke hold. She found some cord and tied their hands behind their backs. Then, she walked outside and called for Yang and Weiss. Weiss came in looking tense, Yang with an expression like thunder.

"You _sure_ we're allowed in Your Highness?"

"Shut up," said Blake. "Look what I've got for you."

Yang looked at the prisoners. "They know where Ruby is?"

"I doubt it," said Blake. "One of them told me how they cut off her ears."

Yang turned pale. She looked at Blake with wide open eyes.

"Her _rabbit_ ears," said Blake.

"But Ruby doesn't..." Yang kicked herself. "Ah."

"First things first," said Weiss. She pulled out her scroll and flipped to the direction finder. She walked straight to a cupboard, opened it, threw out most of what was inside, and came out holding Ruby's scroll. It was still relatively new and unscratched, and decorated with roses.

"Gimme," said Yang. Weiss handed the scroll to Yang and she flipped it open, tapped in the keycode.

"Ruby gave you her _scroll_ _code_?" said Weiss. Yang getting her hands on _that_ was slightly more intimate than getting her hand, oscillating and all, into someone's underwear.

"Just in case of emergencies," said Yang.

Weiss crossed her arms. "Now I wonder how many of her texts were really you."

"None," said Yang, flipping through the history pages. She glanced at Weiss. "That's a line we don't cross. First time I did that, she'd just change the code and then I couldn't use her scroll if something'd happen to her." Yang looked back at the display. "This stops about three weeks ago."

Yang stepped over to the man and waved the scroll in his face.

"Where'd you get this? Where is the girl you took this from?"

The man looked at her steadily. "Get lost."

Yang tossed Ruby's scroll at Weiss and picked up a chair fallen over. With a jerk, she broke off one of the legs and held it in front of the man's face. Blue lights ran up and down her arm and her fist slowly closed until with a crack the chairleg broke.

"This could be your arm. And your other arm. And your legs." Yang moved a bit closer. "Or your _nuts_."

"Do it, bitch. Bet you don't have the guts for it. Or you'd have started already."

"I'm looking for my sister, you pisshead. Think I won't?"

The man looked at her with a gaze as steady as a rock.

"Last chance," said Yang.

"Get on with it already."

Yang grabbed his crotch. " _Really_ sure?"

"Bit to the left," said the man. "Can't scratch my own nuts on account of being tied up."

"Yang."

Yang looked over her shoulder. Blake stood behind her.

"Let me."

Yang stepped aside. Blake took her place and smiled at the man.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Oh you are the _nice_ one? Tell you what. Suck my dick and we'll..."

Moving fast as water, Blake grabbed the White Fang woman's arms, dragged her over, kicked her in the back of the knees and twisted her arm. The woman cried out in pain.

"I'll hurt _her_ ," said Blake.

"Leave her out of this! She doesn't know anything! It's me you want."

"Good," said Blake. "Then it won't matter if I kill her by accident. Now I'm going to ask you a few simple questions. And if I don't like the answers..." Blake let go of the woman's arm, grabbed her hair and pulled back her head. She put one hand on the woman's face, one sharp fingernail hovering above her eyelid. "If I don't like what you are telling me, you'll have to look her in the eye, and explain with every cut of the knife, every broken bone, every inch of burnt skin, why you aren't telling us about our friend." Blake pressed her fingernail down a little. The woman gave a frightened whimper. "And I do mean _eye_."

"Allright. Let her go, and I'll tell you everything you want."

"Start talking."

"Let her go first."

"You're not in any position to make demands. Talk, or I start slicing."

"Promise me you'll let her go."

Blake paused a moment, then pushed the woman away. "I'll let her go. Where did you get that scroll."

The man looked at Blake a moment. "We never saw your friend. We got this off some sneak thief down Haven way. She tried stealing weapons from us, but we caught her. The scroll was in her loot."

"Tell us more about this thief. What did she look like?"

"Human. Green hair. Brown skin." He grinned. "Nice tits."

"What did you do with her?"

"Nothing. She got away. Someone started shooting at us, and she gave us the slip in the confusion."

There was a hand on Blake's shoulder, and Weiss whispered a single name in her ear.

"Emerald."

Blake nodded. "Anything else? Did you see who was shooting at you?"

"Never saw who it was. I've told you all I know. Now let her go."

Blake stood up, drew her sword, turned to the woman.

"Turn around."

The woman closed her eyes, took a few shaking breaths, did as she was told. She held up her hands for Blake to cut the ropes. Blake put her gun to the back of her head, fired. She fell to the floor as the man cried out. Blake turned round and shot the man in the head. Weiss and Yang stared at her, speechless.

"I lied," said Blake. 

* * *

 

After their last encounter with the White Fang, they had left the bodies where they were. It had put Weiss' father on their trail, and he had caught up with them. They still didn't know why he hadn't whisked Weiss off to Atlas. He definitely could have. This time, they weren't going to make the same mistake. Blake and Yang, being the strongest, gathered up all the dead bodies and piled them up in the middle of the house. Weiss gathered up everything that would burn, splashed everything with tractor fuel, and dropped in a match. None of them had even considered spending the night here, surrounded by the ghosts of their victims. They found the road back, walked for an hour. They huddled in the shade of a few bushes, had a simple meal of energy bars and water, and went to sleep. Yang turned her back on Blake and pulled her sleeping bag over her head. Blake looked at her with tearful eyes. Weiss gave her a smile, sat next to her and whispered in her ear.

"Don't worry. She'll come by. You know what she's like. Blows up like a firecracker, forgets it in a flash. It'll be fine in the morning."

Blake's voice was so quiet that even Weiss could hardly hear it.

"I just don't want her to get hurt."

"She knows that." Weiss looked away a few moments, then back at Blake. "Would you really have done it?"

"Done what?"

"Tortured that woman? In front of her friend? Clawed her eye out?"

"Yes."

Weiss took a deep breath, blew it out. "Remind me never to get you angry at me."

Blake smiled. "You're not White Fang."

"Good. Gods, I thought _I_ hated them." Weiss crawled into her sleeping bag.

"Hell hath no fury," said Blake. "Good night, Weiss." She looked over at Yang. "Good night, Yang," she whispered. Yang didn't give any sign that she'd heard her. Maybe she was asleep already. She'd talk to her in the morning. 

 

Blake looked up at the growing moon. It was becoming harder and harder to find in her mind the young, driven Faunus girl that had wanted to put the world to rights, one placard at a time. She thought of Beacon Academy before it had been destroyed. About her friends. Ruby. Weiss. Sun. Poor Pyrrha, Anubis guide her. She closed her eyes a moment. Yang. She looked over at the tuft of blonde hair sticking up out of the sleeping bag. Whispered her name.

Blake smiled to herself as the sky started to turn red with the first light of the coming day. 

 

It would be allright. 


End file.
